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Eight Days That Changed the World

April 5, 2026

Scripture referenced 25 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

  • John 11:43-44 Jesus calling Lazarus forth from the grave, still bound in grave clothes

    43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

    44 He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”

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Matthew 21:9-11

crowds shouting Hosanna at the triumphal entry, city asking who is this

9 The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

10 When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”

11 The multitudes said, “This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

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Matthew 21:12-13

Jesus driving out buyers and sellers, overturning tables in the temple

12 Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves.

13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”

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Isaiah 56

my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples, even outsiders brought to the holy mountain

1 Yahweh says, “Maintain justice, and do what is right; for my salvation is near, and my righteousness will soon be revealed.

2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

3 Let no foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, “Yahweh will surely separate me from his people.” Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”

4 For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant:

5 I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, that will not be cut off.

6 Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh, to serve him, and to love Yahweh’s name, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant;

7 I will bring these to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

8 The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “I will yet gather others to him, besides his own who are gathered.”

9 All you animals of the field, come to devour, all you animals in the forest.

10 His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

11 Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.

12 “Come,” say they, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be as today, great beyond measure.”

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Matthew 21:14

the blind and lame came to Jesus in the temple and he healed them

14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

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Isaiah 35

eyes of the blind opened, lame leaping like a deer, spoken of Messiah seven hundred years before Christ

1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.

2 It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see Yahweh’s glory, the excellence of our God.

3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.

4 Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong. Don’t be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

6 Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

7 The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.

8 A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.

9 No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there.

10 The Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

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Matthew 21:15-16

chief priests and scribes indignant at children shouting Hosanna, Jesus quoting from Psalm 8

15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were indignant,

16 and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Did you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise?’”

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Psalm 8

out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise, quoted by Jesus to the indignant chief priests

1 Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens!

2 From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;

4 what is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him?

5 For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet:

7 All sheep and cattle, yes, and the animals of the field,

8 The birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

9 Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

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Mark 14:12-16

disciples sent into the city to follow a man with a pitcher of water and prepare the Passover

12 On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?”

13 He sent two of his disciples, and said to them, “Go into the city, and there you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him,

14 and wherever he enters in, tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’

15 He will himself show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Get ready for us there.”

16 His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found things as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.

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Luke 22:24-27

dispute among disciples over who is greatest, Jesus saying he is among them as one who serves

24 There arose also a contention among them, which of them was considered to be greatest.

25 He said to them, “The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’

26 But not so with you. But one who is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and one who is governing, as one who serves.

27 For who is greater, one who sits at the table, or one who serves? Isn’t it he who sits at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

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John 13:1-5

Jesus knowing his hour had come, loving his own to the end, rising to wash the disciples feet

1 Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,

3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and was going to God,

4 arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments. He took a towel, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

5 Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

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John 13:21-30

Jesus troubled in spirit, identifying Judas as betrayer by the dipped morsel, Judas going out into the night

21 When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”

22 The disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke.

23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was at the table, leaning against Jesus’ breast.

24 Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.”

25 He, leaning back, as he was, on Jesus’ breast, asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

26 Jesus therefore answered, “It is he to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

27 After the piece of bread, then Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”

28 Now no man at the table knew why he said this to him.

29 For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus said to him, “Buy what things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.

30 Therefore having received that morsel, he went out immediately. It was night.

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John 17

high priestly prayer in the garden, Jesus praying for unity among all believers throughout the ages

1 Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;

2 even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

3 This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

4 I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

5 Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.

6 I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.

7 Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,

8 for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

9 I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

10 All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

11 I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

13 But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

14 I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

15 I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.

16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

18 As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.

19 For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

20 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word,

21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

24 Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.

26 I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

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John 18:1-3

Jesus and disciples crossing the Kidron ravine to the garden where Judas led the Roman cohort

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.

2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.

3 Judas then, having taken a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

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John 18:13-14

Jesus led to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas who had said it was expedient for one man to die

13 and led him to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

14 Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should perish for the people.

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John 19

the cross, the crucifixion, and Jesus saying it is finished

1 So Pilate then took Jesus, and flogged him.

2 The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown, and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment.

3 They kept saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and they kept slapping him.

4 Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”

5 Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the man!”

6 When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.”

7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”

8 When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid.

9 He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.

10 Pilate therefore said to him, “Aren’t you speaking to me? Don’t you know that I have power to release you, and have power to crucify you?”

11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin.”

12 At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t Caesar’s friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!”

13 When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called “The Pavement”, but in Hebrew, “Gabbatha.”

14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”

15 They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”

16 So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away.

17 He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called “The Place of a Skull”, which is called in Hebrew, “Golgotha”,

18 where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle.

19 Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

20 Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

21 The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘he said, “I am King of the Jews.”’”

22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

24 Then they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says, “They parted my garments among them. For my cloak they cast lots.” Therefore the soldiers did these things.

25 But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

26 Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

28 After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.”

29 Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth.

30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished.” He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.

31 Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn’t remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

32 Therefore the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him;

33 but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs.

34 However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

35 He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe.

36 For these things happened, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “A bone of him will not be broken.”

37 Again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they pierced.”

38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body.

39 Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds.

40 So they took Jesus’ body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.

41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid.

42 Then because of the Jews’ Preparation Day (for the tomb was near at hand) they laid Jesus there.

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Isaiah 53

written seven hundred years before Christ describing the suffering servant, pierced for transgressions, scourged, led like a lamb, buried with a rich man

1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?

2 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.

4 Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.

8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?

9 They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

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Psalm 22

my god my god why have you forsaken me, they pierced my hands and feet, they divided my garments and cast lots, quoted and fulfilled at the crucifixion

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?

2 My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.

3 But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel.

4 Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them.

5 They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not disappointed.

6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.

7 All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,

8 “He trusts in Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”

9 But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust while at my mother’s breasts.

10 I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb. You are my God since my mother bore me.

11 Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

13 They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.

14 I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.

16 For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.

17 I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.

18 They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.

19 But don’t be far off, Yahweh. You are my help: hurry to help me.

20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.

21 Save me from the lion’s mouth! Yes, from the horns of the wild oxen, you have answered me.

22 I will declare your name to my brothers. Among the assembly, I will praise you.

23 You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him! Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!

24 For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard.

25 Of you comes my praise in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him.

26 The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you.

28 For the kingdom is Yahweh’s. He is the ruler over the nations.

29 All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can’t keep his soul alive.

30 Posterity shall serve him. Future generations shall be told about the Lord.

31 They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, for he has done it.

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John 3:16-17

god so loved the world, spoken privately to Nicodemus, recalled when Nicodemus helps take down Jesus body

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

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Romans 1

Jesus declared son of god with power by the resurrection from the dead

1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God,

2 which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

3 concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh,

4 who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

5 through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake;

6 among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;

7 to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

9 For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,

10 requesting, if by any means now at last I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you.

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established;

12 that is, that I with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.

13 Now I don’t desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.

14 I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.

15 So, as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

16 For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

17 For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

19 because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them.

20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.

21 Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.

24 Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves;

25 who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.

27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.

28 Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers,

30 backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

31 without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;

32 who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

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Romans 4

delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification

1 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?

2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.

3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

4 Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.

5 But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

6 Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,

7 “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

8 Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”

9 Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

10 How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

11 He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.

12 He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.

13 For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.

15 For the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.

16 For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

17 As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.

18 Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.”

19 Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,

21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

22 Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”

23 Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,

24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,

25 who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

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Romans 6

believers walk in newness of life identified with Christ in death and resurrection

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

3 Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;

9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!

16 Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.

18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

22 But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Romans 8

the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.

3 For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;

4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;

7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

8 Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.

9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.

15 For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;

17 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.

19 For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

21 that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

23 Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

24 For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?

25 But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.

26 In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.

27 He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

29 For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

30 Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.

31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?

33 Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.

34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from God’s love, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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1 Corinthians 15

Paul states Jesus was raised and seen by many witnesses

1 Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,

2 by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.

7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,

8 and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.

9 For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

11 Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

12 Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.

14 If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.

15 Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up, if it is so that the dead are not raised.

16 For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised.

17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.

18 Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

19 If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.

20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.

21 For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.

22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.

24 Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

27 For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.

28 When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.

29 Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?

30 Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?

31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

32 If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

33 Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”

34 Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”

36 You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.

37 That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.

38 But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.

39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.

40 There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.

41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.

43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.

45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

46 However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.

47 The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.

48 As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

49 As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.

50 Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.

53 For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54 But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55 “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers,…

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Philippians 3

Paul desires to know Christ and the power of his resurrection

1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe.

2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;

4 though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more:

5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

6 concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

7 However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.

8 Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ

9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

10 that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;

11 if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

13 Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.

16 Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.

17 Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

18 For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

19 whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

21 who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

Easter Sunday is always hard to preach, Pastor Mark admitted at the outset, because the story never changes and yet it has to be entered fresh every year. This year he walked the congregation through Holy Week day by day, from the raising of Lazarus eight days before resurrection Sunday all the way to the empty tomb, letting the paintings, the prophecies, and the people along the road carry the weight.

What was said

The sermon opened with a small confession. Pastor Mark told the church he sometimes calls his wife Tanya when he is stuck on a sermon, and she sends him back to his roots as an art major. That led to the painting he keeps returning to for Easter, "Christ Resurrected Surrounded by Angels" by Sebastiano Ricci, which he had stood in front of in Columbia, South Carolina during seminary. He also noted that he made essentially the same slide for Easter 2015 and Easter 2019 without realizing it, which seemed to prove his point about how hard it is to find a fresh angle on a story that does not need one.

From there he set the time frame, beginning eight days before resurrection Sunday with the raising of Lazarus. He read the passage where Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb and then, rather than untying him himself, tells the people standing there to unbind him and let him go. Pastor Mark paused on that detail. Jesus brought Lazarus back, but he left the work of unbinding to the people around him.

Moving forward to Palm Sunday and then Holy Monday, he worked through the triumphal entry and the cleansing of the temple, connecting both to Isaiah 56, written roughly seven hundred years before Christ, which speaks of a house of prayer for all peoples. On Holy Tuesday he described the blind and the lame coming to Jesus in the temple, and then the reaction of the chief priests and scribes, who were not grateful for the healings but indignant that children were shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David." Jesus answered them by quoting Psalm 8.

Wednesday he called Spy Wednesday, the single paragraph across two or three gospels in which Judas makes his deal with the chief priests. Pastor Mark suggested that the best reading of Judas might be that he was trying to force Jesus's hand politically, to put him in a position where he would have to act as a conquering king. He was careful to say that was giving Judas the benefit of the doubt.

Thursday moved through the preparation for Passover, which Jesus arranged with enough deliberate secrecy that Judas would not know the location until it was too late to prevent the meal, and then into the upper room itself. The foot-washing happened while the disciples were arguing about which one of them was the greatest. Pastor Mark read through the identification of Judas as the betrayer, noting that Judas did not know where supper would be held until he was already seated, which meant he had to leave immediately and run to the authorities. The four chapters of John that follow, the upper room discourse and the high priestly prayer of John 17, occupy the time while Judas is gone. Pastor Mark said he believes Jesus meant his prayer for unity among all believers literally, and he said plainly that he thinks the divisions between denominations work against that prayer, pointing out that one of the earliest church splits was over the question of which day to celebrate Easter.

The Gethsemane arrest, Peter cutting off the servant's ear, the trials before Annas and Caiaphas and Pilate, and the crucifixion itself were read through alongside Giotto's paintings from the Scrovegni Chapel and a long passage from Isaiah 53, which Pastor Mark noted was written at a time when crucifixion did not yet exist as a form of punishment. He also read through Psalm 22, showing that what Jesus cried from the cross was the opening line of a psalm David wrote a thousand years earlier, one that goes on to describe pierced hands and feet, divided garments, and the casting of lots. The Greek word "tetelestai," translated "it is finished," closed this section. Pastor Mark said he prefers "it has been finished," meaning everything necessary for salvation has already been accomplished and paid in full. He then spoke about Eric Anderson, a friend of the congregation who has ALS and who got a tattoo of the three crosses and the word tetelestai at age 65, saying it would be the last thing he said in a lifelong conversation, and the start of almost every conversation now that he knows he is dying.

The sermon closed with resurrection Sunday itself handled briefly but directly. Pastor Mark worked through several places in Paul's letters where the resurrection is named as the source of present power for believers, including Romans and Philippians, and he said the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is active and living in the church today. The call was not to manage the resurrection as a past event but to live from it.

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  1. The pastor talked about Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb but then telling the people standing there to unbind him and let him go. What does it say to you that Jesus entrusted that work to the people around Lazarus rather than doing it himself?
  2. Walking through Holy Week day by day, which moment or scene stood out most to you, and why did that particular one land the way it did?

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Read the full transcript 8,211 words
0:04 Amen, Judy. Thank you very much. I was trying to keep up with you. It's been a while since I've heard the song. I'm sorry if I was confusing to any of you.
0:11 I've just seen Jesus. I tell you, he's alive. That's amazing. Here we are and before I get started, I have admitted this in the past and I'll admit it again now. I, Christmas and Easter are the hardest sermons for me to preach because we preach em every year and I I don't want to change the story.
0:29 Obviously, I'm not going to change the story. You're not going to add any new characters, make anything up but I go through it and I just say, where am I going to put the focus this year? And it's really, it's really kind of hard for me. So, to be honest, last year, I was in Shiloh, Georgia Easter and I preached there not here. It was even hard doing it for home folks back there.
0:48 So, I will just say this. In 2019, I'm gonna show you something in a minute. In 2019, can you remember 2019 before 2020? Can you remember that far back? I made up this slide for Easter resurrection Sunday twenty nineteen.
1:01 I made up the slide. I will call my wife sometimes when I'm struggling on a sermon. Now, y'all know normally, if I left off at Ephesians three twelve last week, where am I starting? Ephesians three thirteen next week. That's just the norm, right?
1:15 So, that's the normal way to do it but if I am struggling for a sermon topic, whatever I'll call Tanya and say, I'm struggling and she'll say, go back to art. It's a little bit bit like Peter going back to fishing, right? I was an art major from way back and she said, what inspired those painters long ago inspire you? You'll have something to write. Okay, cool.
1:34 So, I got this slide. I made this slide out of a painting that I saw that I think it's my favorite resurrection painting and there are lots of resurrection paintings because it's incredibly inspiring. There are lots of crucifixion paintings because it's incredibly inspiring. Well, this one was resurrection Sunday twenty nineteen, did the font, you know, widescreen. Here it is.
1:55 There's the picture and it is from this painting from Sebastiano Ricci. He's Italian. He was in 1650 to 1734. This was the first part of the seventeenth century. Christ resurrected surrounded by angels.
2:08 When I was in seminary, we lived in Columbia, South Carolina and this is in the permanent collection in Columbia, South Carolina and so when I went digging for it, I'd stood in front of it and been in awe of it. When I went looking for it, I couldn't find it anywhere on the internet. So, I kept looking and kept looking and kept looking. Finally, in the permanent collection, deep, dark recesses of the Columbia Museum on the internet and I found it. So, I blow it up and make the slide and then, okay.
2:34 First slide's out of the way. Now, what am I gonna preach about resurrection? And I start, well, what did I preach in the past? I pull it up on and here's resurrection Sunday twenty nineteen. I looked it up.
2:47 That's the slide I made for resurrection Sunday twenty fifteen. I made exactly the same slide with exactly the same font. Exactly. And I did not base it on this. I, it was completely like, that's the way it goes.
3:01 So, here we are. 2015, 2019. Here we are. Resurrection 2026 and I like high five Jesus. I think better than anything else.
3:10 He just kinda giving you a high five like it's done. It's done. So, last week, if you think back, I talked about for context, I I will have to say that the focus for me this week as I was going through day after day, I had the first class I had in seminary was called the gospels. It's a chronological, geographical study of Jesus' life. Taking all four gospels and putting them together.
3:33 So, last week, I mentioned the raising of Lazarus which happened eight days before resurrection Sunday. So, that is the time frame that changed the world. Eight days that absolutely changed the world. Center point of all human history is not just the cross but the resurrection, right? So, the raising of Lazarus, Jesus, raised a man from the dead, a friend of his, wept at his graveside, and then called him forth and I thought of this picture which I'll use for the rest of the sermon.
4:04 I'm gonna use these pictures are from the Scrovenia Chapel in Padua, Italy, and they are by Giotto. Giotto is the earliest of well, about the earliest. Cimabue is a little before, but Giotto is the earliest of the Italian Renaissance painters. And this is his raising of Lazarus. So, if you look at Jesus is over here kinda holding his hand in the form of a blessing.
4:27 People are adoring him but he has called Lazarus out of the tomb and he's there in the grave clothes still and Jesus is blessing him and this is the text that goes with this just for context. Eight days before resurrection Sunday. Now, when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice. Lazarus, come forth And the man who had died came forth. If you just sat on that, it'd be a sermon's worth of material.
4:54 The man who had died came forth from the grave, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth, and Jesus says to him, Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. Now, before I go on, this is a preacherly moment here. Jesus called him forth. That's something only Jesus can do. Call somebody forth from the grave but then, he didn't untie him.
5:20 He left him with the people and he said, unbind him and let him go. Jesus saved him, brought him back from the dead but he entrusted him to the believers there to help him get unbound. That says something right there. That's different different sermon for a different day. Triumph entry in the Jerusalem, we also discussed last week too.
5:40 So, this is Palm Sunday, seven days before resurrection Sunday and here we are. Jesus coming in on a donkey, Giotto's Palm Sunday, triumphal entry shows people laying down their cloaks, people waving palm branches, and climbing trees, and Jesus coming in on the foal of a donkey. That's 1305, Scrovenia Chapel. When you walk in, it's got all the scenes of Jesus and it goes all the way back to birth but the last week of his life is what carries most of the chapel. It's a little bit stations of the cross but it's before that.
6:15 It starts a week before that. The triumphal entry, the crowds going ahead of him. We covered it in John last week. We're going to read it from Matthew this week. The crowds going ahead of him and those who are following were shouting, Hosanna, save us.
6:29 To the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna, which means save us in the highest. When he had entered Jerusalem, all of the city was stirred and they were saying, who is this? Even the people who didn't know, right? Who is this? And the crowds were saying, this is Jesus, the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.
6:50 So, the next day, I'm gonna go day by day here. The next day doesn't look like gentle Jesus making mild. Do you recognize that? This one is, he's drawn back like this. It's not the Jesus that I usually see drawn but this is from what the church has called Holy Monday.
7:08 Holy Monday, the Monday of Holy Week and it is when Jesus cleansed the temple. So, this is the cleansing of the temple by Jotto. Again, at the Scrovenia Chapel and you could see lambs and you know, birds that are being sold and then these are the vendors and maybe some disciples with him but Jesus is running them out of there and this says, and Jesus entered into the temple. This was Monday, Holy Week. Drove out all of those who are buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who are selling doves and he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer but y'all are making it a robber's den and so, we went to Israel one time.
7:55 I think it was 2019 and right across from the temple is this. The money changers. I just thought it was funny. Anyway, my house should be called a house of prayer but you're making it a robber's den. If you look back to Isaiah 56, Isaiah was written seven hundred years before Christ.
8:16 So, seven hundred years in incredibly astute and articulate at his inspired scripture, even those that's speaking of outsiders, even those I will bring up to my holy mountain and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. Now, if y'all think about that at the temple, what we know is the temple is divided. There's the court of the women and the court of the Gentiles and then there's this divine line and all this but this is saying, even those outsiders, I'm going to make them at home in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar for my house will be called a house of prayer for all of the peoples. All of the peoples.
8:58 That's everybody. Every tribe, tongue, and nation. It's not limited to just those who are of the blood lineage of Abraham. Holy Tuesday. There's a lot of stuff that happens on Holy Tuesday by the way.
9:12 It goes way late into the evening. There's prophecy about the future. There's all kind of eschatology stuff but this one caught my eye this week and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple. Now, he was in the temple every day. He was there teaching and answering questions and Herodians came to him and Sadducees and Pharisees and scribes but this says, the blind and the lame also came to see him in the temple and he healed them.
9:42 Isaiah 35. Again, seven hundred years before Christ's birth. Then, the eyes of the blind will be open. He's speaking of Messiah and ears of the deaf will be unstopped and the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy for waters will break forth in the wilderness, streams of living water, John would say, in John, and streams in the Arabah. Now, what was the immediate aftermath of him healing the sick, the blind, and the deaf.
10:14 You would think that they would have a hallelujah chorus and lifted him up on their shoulders and say, this is our Messiah but this is, when the chief priest and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he had done and nobody's saying that they weren't wonderful, they were wonderful. And that the children who were shouting in the temple, they were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. They had heard that probably walking into Israel Walking into Jerusalem on that triumphal injury but there and they're still saying it. Hosanna to the son of David, they became indignant. The chief priest and scribes became indignant and they said to Jesus, do you hear what these children are saying?
10:53 And Jesus said to them, yes, I do. Have you never heard? Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies? You have prepared praise for yourself. Now, he's quoting from Psalm eight.
11:08 Oh Lord, our lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth who have displayed your splendor above the heavens, the blind, see, the deaf, hear, the lame leap for joy. That's displaying your splendor. From the mouths of infants and nursing babes, you have established strength. Yeah. I've got the dot dot dot ellipses there because on Wednesday, there's very little that we hear about what happened.
11:35 If you know church history and you've been walking through, maybe you're from a liturgical background and you your church has services between, you might have heard some of this but in the Baptist Church, typically, we don't do Maundy Thursday or Good Friday services. Nobody does a silent Saturday service that I know of. Maybe if it's over full, it's a mass before Sunday morning but this dot dot dot is spy Wednesday. So, the spy in spy Wednesday is Judas. There's one little paragraph in three of the gospels, maybe two of the gospels that says, and Judas got up and he made a deal with the chief priest and scribes and that happens on Spy Wednesday and we don't know anymore than that what was said but we do know that Judas is the guy who carried the money bag.
12:22 Judas is the guy who had been with Jesus for nearly three years. He'd been there almost as long as anybody else and he had been with him for some time and nobody was suspicious of him. Spy Wednesday, he goes to make the deal. Now, I think that he probably went to make the deal and he wanted it to be political. He wanted for Jesus.
12:42 He was going to force Jesus' hand. Yeah, he came in triumphal entry. It looks like he's going to be the guy. I I'm giving him the benefit of doubt. The best we can hope for was that Judas was thinking, I'm going to put Jesus in the position of having to be the conquering king because I'm going to put him in basically lock up.
13:01 Spy Wednesday is just the time when Judas makes his deal. Thursday. Thursday is Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday for Mark and from Luke, I think Jesus knows what's going on. He knows, he's already predicted his death multiple times.
13:20 He knows that he must go and must die and he he knows about resurrection but he's he is fully God and fully man. As he's considering this, he tells us to be innocent as doves, right? But he also says to be wise and it this shows a little bit of wisdom on Thursday in the morning. It says, on the first day of the unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, his disciples said to him, where do you want for us to go and for you prepare for you to eat the Passover because they're away from home, right? They're in Jerusalem.
13:58 They're away from home or Bethany and they are there. He sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city, that's Jerusalem and a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you, follow him. Wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, the teacher says, where is the the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples and he himself, the owner, will show you a large upstairs room furnished and ready. Prepare for us there and the disciples left and they came to the city and they found everything just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover. Now, if you look up there and it says in two of his disciples in Mark and Luke who always wants to have an orderly account and usually has more information given.
14:45 He'd interviewed witnesses. He says, it was Peter and John. Okay. So, Peter and John were the ones that went ahead and they found things exactly like Jesus said. There was a guy carrying a pitch of water.
14:54 It's a little cloak and dagger. It feels like, what's going on here? Well, Judas didn't know where they were going to meet. He made the deal to to betray him but Jesus knew he needed some time and so on Maundy Thursday in the morning, he sends them to prepare the place because he knows that they're going to gather that evening. Maundy Thursday, here it is.
15:13 You see, this is from the Scrovenia Chapel, Giotto's painting of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. This is interesting too because it's just so human and there they were, this Passover meal was about to be served and there arose among them a dispute as to which one of them was regarded to be the greatest and he said to them, now think about that. Does that sound like people? You get together and they start talking and eventually a bunch of men in a room. They're going to eventually talk about which one is the greatest, right?
15:49 They're going have to figure out who's the greatest at this and that but they were going through this and he said to him, the kings of the Gentiles lorded over them and those who have authority over them are called benefactors but it's not this way with you. The one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like the servant. For who is greater? The one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table but I'm showing you and I'm telling you, I'm among you as the one who serves.
16:21 He says, I came to serve and not be served, right? Now, this is Jesus washing the disciples' feet. As the as the painting is of the disciples washing the disciples' feet. Now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour had come that he would depart out of the world to the father having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the very end.
16:48 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon to betray him and he'd already made the deal. Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God. Jesus, the little asterisk in the New American Standard Version of the Bible. It's a historical present. The verbs are present tense verbs.
17:11 So, it reads like this. It says and knowing that he was going back to God, gets up from supper, lays aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girds himself and he pours water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. So, as they're arguing over which one is the greatest, he starts washing their feet like a slave. So, here they are after they got their feet washed. And they're all gathered around the table for the Passover supper which of course is a celebration of Passover when God saved Israel and delivered them and they're to remember it every year and they're doing that.
17:56 You see, John, if you get closer there, you can see John leaning on Jesus. When Jesus had said this, he became troubled in spirit and he testified and he said, truly, truly I say to you that one of y'all will betray me and the disciples began looking around at each other at a loss to know of which one he was speaking and they were reclining on Jesus. There was one reclining on Jesus' bosom. One of his disciples whom Jesus loved. It's this is in John.
18:22 He calls himself the disciple Jesus love which is awesome. So, there he is leaning on him. Probably the youngest of the disciples sitting next to Jesus and Peter's right there, the oldest one. So, Simon Peter gestured to John and said to him, tell us who it is of whom we speak and please get him to tell you who it is and he leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom says to him, lord, who is it? And Jesus answered, the one for whom I shall dip the morsel of bread and give it to him.
18:53 That's an honored thing. So, when he had dipped the morsel, he took it and he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Escariot and after that morsel had been eaten. It says, Satan entered into him and Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly. Now, he didn't tell him. He didn't tell all the rest of them that that was the betrayer.
19:12 He didn't go into it but Judas did not know until he was sitting at that supper where that supper was gonna be. So, he's gotta run down to the probably Antonia Fortress. He's gotta run to get the chief priest and scribes and the writs and everything else to make this happen. So, he is going out of there and Jesus says, what you do, do quickly. Now, no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this.
19:36 They just assumed they were supposing because Judas had the money box that Jesus was saying, go buy this or that or to give something to the poor. That's a normal thing during Passover too. So, after receiving the morsel, he went out immediately and it was night. I'm going stop right here for a second. Is the evening meal dinner or is it supper?
19:55 I want y'all to answer out loud. Is it dinner or is it supper? Supper. It's supper. According to the Bible, y'all call this the last dinner?
20:04 No, it's the last supper. Alright. Alright. This is the next image on the chapel wall. A little square tableau of Judas.
20:17 The devil at his back, pushing him into the chief priest and scribes, 30 pieces of silver in the sack. And the dot dot dot here is for four chapters of John. Four chapters of the book of John while Judas goes to gather the people to come and betray Jesus, he has time where Judas is not in the room and he's with his other 11 disciples and he's sitting there and he's sharing with them what life is gonna be like without him physically present with him. At that point, he promises them the coming of the Holy Spirit. He promises to illumine scripture.
20:54 He promises that he will be with them. He promises all kinds of stuff. He says, hey, you're gonna have trouble. Trouble, tribulation, trials, you're going to have em but take heart. I've overcome the world.
21:06 You're going to be alright. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen is all the upper room discourse in that place where Jesus had established. Peter and John went and got ready and that's where they were. It also in the next chapter is Jesus's prayer in the garden and I know that there are folks here who are long time believers and I know there's some folks here who probably just came in because long time believer brought you and that's fine. Jesus's prayer in the garden is beautiful.
21:35 It is his high priestly prayer, we call it and John chapter 17, he goes into praying for not just his disciples who are there with him but for everyone who would ever come to believe because of their testimony and because of your testimony. To be established into the continuing body of Christ is to believe the gospel message and what he says is a component of that. It is the unity in the believers of Jesus and what he prays for in the garden is that all believers everywhere throughout the ages, geography, and everything that we would be one just like he is one. Y'all, I really believe he meant that. I really believe that it's time for denominations to go poof and go away because denominating is splitting us apart.
22:30 It's kind of interesting that here we are on Easter and I'm thinking about Jesus's prayer in the garden and the Easter prayer, may they be one just like we're one. You know what the one of the earliest controversies that led to a church split was? The Paschal controversies has nothing to do with our daughter. The Paschal controversies are over when should we celebrate Easter? Are you serious?
22:57 Yes. We split over this. That's crazy. We split the quarto decimanians were on one side. We ought to do it on the fourteenth of Nissan and then the others are not, it's gotta be on Sunday.
23:07 It's resurrection Sunday and they split over it. Oh, against Jesus's wishes by the way. If you didn't catch that. John 18, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the Ravine Of The Kidron after that high priestly prayer. When they all fell asleep.
23:26 He went across the Ravine Of Kidron where there was a garden and he entered in there with his disciples. Now, Judas also, who was betraying him, knew the place for Jesus had often met there with his disciples. It was somewhere that they normally hung out. So, Judas, I'm sure he went back to that upper room first and they're gone and so, okay. Well, I know where else they might be.
23:46 Takes him down the hill and this is Jotto's representation. Judas then having received the Roman cohort and the officers from the chief priest and the Pharisees comes there with lanterns and torches and weapons. And if you get a little closer on this image, you see, Peter, he saw the weapons. And he came with a knife, right? Actually, he came ready to fight and ready not to what?
24:18 Deny Jesus because what Jesus told him in the upper room was, hey, before the cock crows, you're going to deny me three times. No, I'm not. He was trying to prove it. No, I'm not. So, he cuts off this dude's ear.
24:31 Actually, you can get a little better picture over there. Ain't that terrible? You know, if I had to say, I don't think he was aiming for the ear. I think he was trying to chop that guy's head off. The guy ducked and he got his ear but Jesus just picks up the ear, puts it back on, heals him, and says, hey, Peter, put that away.
24:48 You live by the sword, you die by the sword. We don't need that. Do you think I couldn't call 10,000 angels right now? He left the glories of heaven. He could have.
25:00 So, the Roman cohort and the commander of the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and they bound him and they led him first to Anas for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas who was high priest that year. Now, Caiaphas, remember, he was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people. When they were trying to beg Pilate to persecute and capture and kill Jesus and they're trying to make the deal with the Romans to do that. He said out loud, as high priest, something that he did not understand what he even meant. He said, it's expedient for one man to die.
25:36 We're not going to all be crushed in this riot. We're going to just pick one guy and he's going to die instead but the truth is, he is the one guy who could die on behalf of the people. He had a perfect record that he could surrender voluntarily for anyone who would believe. So, that picture is him before Caiaphas and then the next picture is him with the mocking and the soldiers and the beatings and they were pulling on his beard and placing a crown of thorns. Mocking him.
26:07 John 19. We see the cross. Now, we've heard a lot and y'all have heard the the utter beating that he took, the scourging that he took. Now, I want to say something about that too. I mentioned last week that Pilate had a chance.
26:27 He was the guy who was the governor and he could say yes or no as whether he lives or dies and he declared him innocent over and over and over and over again. He was declared innocent eight different times in the gospels before Pilate said, well, take him and beat him anyway. Doesn't make any sense but it was politics. It was expedient that one man take the beating, they said. And then after he was scourged, he was so beaten and bloodied and unable to carry that cross that Simon of Cyrene actually helped him.
27:01 I think that's what this image is pointing to. Jesus is carrying the cross but he's about to need some help. And then, the crucifix, the crucifixion painting. Is there anything that has been painted more often than the crucifixion? Maybe a sunset at the beach, maybe.
27:19 But it's it's basically the crucifixion is it doesn't matter if it's 1305 or 1605 or 1900 or 2026. The crucifixion still matters. It's the center point like I said of all, not just human history but all history. It is where the creator God put himself on the line. Voluntarily and sacrificially to save anyone who would believe.
27:49 May I read this? This was written seven hundred years before Christ and crucifixion was not even a form of punishment at this time and if you're listening, you'll see it all over it and if you're listening, you'll see the scourging in there too. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he with the capital h, that's pointing to Messiah.
28:14 He grew up before him like a tender shoot. He grew up before God like a tender shoot. Not like godhead but like human. He grew up before him like a tender shoot. Actually, I think that's a pun too.
28:27 Oh, play on words. Netzer points to Nazareth and like a root out of the parched ground, he has no stately form nor majesty. If you think back to the triumphal entry, when he came in, he came in on a donkey. The cult of a donkey, not even, it wasn't a war horse and it wasn't a royal thing, a majestic thing. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him nor any appearance that we should be attracted to him.
28:53 He's just normal guy that appeared. He was despised and forsaken of men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When you read that as someone who is sorrowful or grieving, I I think that that's really helpful. I think it's really helpful to know that Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
29:16 I think it's helpful to know that Jesus wept. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. John says that he came to his own and his own received him not. Isaiah fifty three four should continue. Surely, our griefs, he himself bore.
29:38 Surely, our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him as stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted but he was pierced through, pierced the nails in his hands and feet. That was not a way of doing things when this was written but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him. Our well-being, our recovery, our well-being fell upon him and it is by his scourging that we ourselves are healed.
30:21 All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned to his own way but the Lord has caused the iniquity of all of us to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like he said to Peter, he could have called 10,000 angels. Even on the cross, he could have.
30:40 He could have shut piled up pretty quick but he didn't. Like a sheep before his shearers was silent. He spoke not a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. By oppression and judgement, he was taken away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, you know, they crucified him outside of the city.
31:02 In a place of death. For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due, it says that he stepped in as the intermediary between the one who deserved the punishment and the one who was righteously given it out. His grave was signed with wicked men. The norm for a prisoner would be to just be buried in Potter's Field A rich man was associated with him in death. Joseph of Arimathea will see him in a few minutes.
31:36 Yet, he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth but this says and it's hard for us to read this but it says, the Lord was pleased to crush him, Jesus, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering and he did. So, he put himself out there as a sacrificial offering and it says, he will see his offspring. He will see what becomes of his people. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
32:14 As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see this and he will be satisfied. Jesus will be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will justify the many and he will bear their iniquities. If you ever hear anybody say, Bible doesn't say anything about substitutionary atonement. Here it is, Old Testament.
32:35 Lived out in the New Testament. No doubt about it. It's all over the place. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death and he was numbered with the transgressors. The gospels bring up that being crucified between those two thieves is him being numbered with the transgressors.
32:57 Yet, he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. I love the the the thief on the cross. Right? The thief on the cross story is a wonderful story. I won't go into the whole thing but think about this.
33:08 One of the gospel says, when they were being placed on the crosses, the other two guys are tied on, Jesus is nailed on and as he's being nailed to the tree, it says, they were reviling him. Two people, they were reviling him and when when they were stood up and when they were standing there, something about Jesus caught the eye of one of those guys. Not both of them. One of them continued to revile and mock and the other one says, can't you see this guy's no nothing wrong? He's praying to be for God to forgive the ones who are nailing him to the tree.
33:43 We deserve what we're getting but he doesn't deserve it. He turns to Jesus and says, hey, remember me when you come into your kingdom and he did. Jesus interceded for the transgressors. It's great. Seven hundred BC fulfilled at the crucifixion.
33:59 Mark says, on the cross and I've done sermons before about the seven things Jesus said on the cross and all these different kinds of ways of looking at this but the focus today right here, Eloy Eloy, Lemma Sabach tonight which is translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? At the ninth hour, Jesus cries this out. I'm gonna mention one more word that he says but this is from Psalm 22. It's the beginning of a song. So, if I started, I don't know.
34:28 If I started pretty much any song, I can think of 500 of em but if I started any song and I just put one of those earworms in there for you that you know, you'd be singing it the rest of the day, wouldn't you? And you wouldn't just sing the line I gave you. You'd sing the rest of the Psalm. So, I'm gonna look at this. Psalm 22 starts off with that.
34:47 He does the opening line. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And that sounds like, have you been there? Yeah. We've all felt forsaken at some point.
34:58 Sometimes, we feel forsaken of God. He's saying how he feels. David wrote this. A thousand years before Christ. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
35:08 Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry by day but it doesn't seem that you answer me. I cry by night but I have no rest. I can't sleep for my anxious thoughts. Yet, yet, I know the truth.
35:22 You are holy. You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In you, our fathers trusted and they trusted and you delivered them. To you, they cried out and they were delivered. To you, they trusted and they were not disappointed.
35:35 I know the truth is, even in the midst of the storm, I need to call out. My God, my God, I feel like you've forsaken me but I know who you are and I'm crying out. Psalm twenty two six says this, by the way, one time for a for a baby dedication, I was standing up here and I was doing a baby dedication. There's this little boy who's just wriggling in his mama's arms and was trying to do the, hey, train up a child in the way they should go and when they're older, not depart from. That's Proverbs twenty two six if you want to know.
36:07 It's not Psalm twenty two six. It's Proverbs twenty two six. I got up here and I opened my Bible. It was a paper Bible and I flipped to it and I said, well, Psalm twenty two six says, but I am a wriggling little baby that there was here. I thought, this is supposed to say train of a child the way they should go and I flipped and couldn't find anything different.
36:26 So, I kept reading. I'll tell you where I finally landed but this is Psalm 22 continued but I am a worm and not a man. A reproach of men and despised by all the people. Can you see this on the cross? All of those who see me are smearing at me.
36:44 They separate. They shoot out the lip and they wag their head and they say, commit yourself to the Lord. Let him deliver him. Actually, that's something that in the gospel, people are crying out. Hey, he says God's he's God's son.
36:56 Let deliver him. Let him rescue him because he delights in him. 229, this is where I picked up for the baby dedication. Yet, you are he who brought me forth from the womb. You made me to trust you even upon my mother's breast.
37:12 Upon you, I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother's womb. Be not far from me, God, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan. They've encircled me.
37:27 They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening, a roaring lion, and I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. Can you, the excruciating pain. Excruciating is from crucifixion, right?
37:39 That's where we get the word. It's horrible. Bones pulled past their separation of their joints. My heart is like wax. It's welted within, melted within me.
37:51 My strength is dried up like a pot and my tongue cleaves to my jaws and you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers have surrounded me. They pierced my hands and my feet. So, if you didn't catch it from the piercings in Isaiah, it's more specific three hundred and forty years before. They pierced my hands and my feet.
38:13 I can count all my bones. There was a prophecy that his bones would not be broken. The way to end the crucifixion quickly because people have just enough room to stand a bit to get a little more air in their lungs. The way to end the crucifixion when it's going on too long is to break the legs of the prisoner on the cross. But Jesus had given up his spirit before they broke any of his bones.
38:36 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me, then they divide my garments among them. This literally happened and for my clothing, they cast lots. That's a thousand years before Christ and at the crucifixion, it was achieved. It was fulfilled.
38:52 To tell us die is the last word I wanna discuss this morning. To tell us die is a Greek word. I can go into third person singular blah blah blah but it's to tell us die. What it means, it's used twice in the New Testament. There are three verse, two verses apart.
39:09 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished. He had done everything and fulfilled every prophecy. He had done everything necessary that the scripture might be fulfilled said, I thirst. Now, a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there. They filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
39:29 So, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished to tell us die and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. That's John 19. So, it is finished. It's great. I think that's it's perfectly reasonable translation.
39:44 I prefer it has been finished. I know I'm a grammar nerd but it has been finished means it happened in the past. Everything necessary for salvation and for sanctification happened and everything has now been accomplished. You might even say everything now has been paid, paid in full. Everything has been done and that is what Tetelestai means.
40:10 That's a tattoo. I I know somebody, actually I know somebody in the first service that has a little tattoo of right here. To remember people who are being persecuted and feeling forsaken. Right? And to Telestai, we have a friend who came to church here for years and you all know him, most of you all know him, Eric Anderson.
40:30 Eric said he waited till 65 to get rebellious and get a tattoo and this is what he got. You see the three crosses there. He has ALS. So, ALS is a very hard disease. He's lost most of his strength and almost all of the strength in his left arm and his right arm is deteriorating fast and he knows that before long at some point, he's going to lose his voice and he said, it was so poetic.
40:59 He said, I got to be 65 and I and I went rebellish and got a tattoo and this is what it says. He says, I know that I will lose my voice because that's what ALS does. I know that I'm losing my voice. He said, the last thing Jesus said was this to Telestai. It's finished and he said, for him, it was the last thing he said in a lifelong conversation.
41:21 For me, it's the start of almost every conversation I have knowing I'm going to die soon to Telestai. It's finished. Isn't that cool? Thank you, Connor. I agree with you.
41:31 Love that guy. So, I would say, I know that I've gotten you just to the cross and that's only up to Good Friday. The deposition bringing Christ down from the cross, the standing figure there, this is Michelangelo's from the from fifteen forty seven, fifty five, something like that. Michelangelo made this sculpture. It's called the Bandini Deposition and he did not like it.
42:00 He did not quite finish it. It looks finished and it's been put back together but he didn't feel like he did it justice and he broke it all to pieces and other people put it back together for him. There's an even better one called the Rondanini but this one is the act of getting him down off of the cross. So Mary and Nicodemus are there. And there they are and they're about to put him into the grave.
42:25 So the lamentation, the lament over Christ painting from Giotto with the angels lamenting too. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus but a secret one for fear of the people in power asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate granted permission. So, came and he took away his body and Nicodemus, y'all remember Nicodemus? This says, Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him by night. You remember where we get this verse?
42:54 This is Jesus' private conversation with Nicodemus. It's great callback. You think Jesus, Nicodemus was a whosoever? He was one of those whosoever. Nicodemus, are you a teacher of Israel and you don't understand the things?
43:10 Listen to me, man. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He says this as the only begotten son of God that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God didn't send his son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved through him. So, they took the body of Jesus, abounded in linen wrappings just like eight days ago or not even seven days ago.
43:35 They had done for Lazarus getting out of him. They're putting him into him. Now, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. In the garden, there was a new tomb. Joseph of Arimathea's tomb.
43:43 It says in another gospel in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, they put him there. He was just borrowing the place anyway. They laid him in there and then we have silent Saturday. There are all kinds of theological debate about what happened on Silent Saturday but I think that all of us sitting with all that has happened through Holy Week whether it's just in the sermon or me, you know, anxiously pouring through everything all week long.
44:15 Sitting in Saturday and thinking about Christ, slain on my behalf. Resurrection Sunday is the best thing that ever happened and it's the power of God. It's the high five Jesus. There he is again. So, we've been working through Ephesians and we've been working through Paul's writings.
44:35 Paul mentions over and over and over and over again that Jesus was raised, that he was viewed by people. He says that in first Corinthians 15. In Romans, he says, he was declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Romans four, he was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. Believers are able to walk in newness of life because they have identified with Christ and his death and his resurrection.
45:04 Romans eight, the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies. Philippians three, Paul desires to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. The same spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is active today and living in the continuing body of Christ. It is what directs and empowers the church to do the will of God which is to be unified and look out for others sharing the agape and the has said that steadfast love of the Lord that never ceases. We are to be about his business and we can do that because of the power of the resurrection.
45:40 I'm going to close with this. Last week, we sang the first three verses of were you there? I'm going ask you to come forward and I appreciate it. Next year, we'll probably do resurrection all the different people in the order that he saw him and all that stuff. We'll get to that.
45:55 I promise. Remind me. Okay. But this Sunday, we're going to close with this. If you'd stand with me, we're going to sing, were you there?
46:03 And watch for the changes at the end. The the last chorus is a little different on were you there?

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Written up from the message given at First B Jackson. If something here reads oddly, the recording is the record.

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